


Fish Food

by Masu_Trout



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendly Rivalry, Training, pokemon battles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 01:13:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/pseuds/Masu_Trout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>This whole stupid thing was Romeo and Juliet: The Gym Leader Edition, and Roxie refused to be the idiot who stabbed herself for love. </i>
</p><p>Roxie offers to help train one of Rosa's pokemon, and somehow ends up falling hopelessly in love along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fish Food

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skylark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/gifts).



A lot of challengers tended to really underestimate Roxie. She didn't know why that was-- if it was her age or her height, or maybe they just saw her concerts on TV and assumed anyone that fantastically freaking _awesome_ at playing guitar couldn't also be a good pokemon trainer. Whatever the reason, it was always an amazing rush when she set up a perfect toxic-and-venoshock combo or had her scolipede use earthquake on their steel Pokemon. (Seriously, she was a gym leader. Did _everyone_ assume she wouldn't have a counter for that?) 

Honestly, she really couldn't imagine not loving both her Pokemon and her music; there was the same energy to both of them, a sort of adrenaline rush when she turned a battle around or managed to improvise a really amazing guitar solo. Times like that, she felt on top of the world, her veins pumping venom straight down into her fingertips and toes, making her feel alive like nothing else in the world could. 

And she could already tell today was going to be one of those days. 

She'd woken up early with some interesting lyric ideas stuck in her head and ended up heading to her gym-slash-studio almost an hour before it was supposed to open. From there it had just been one idea after another, scribbling lyrics and bars of music on every piece of scrap paper she could find lying around (she always meant to bring fresh paper, and she always always forgot) until she was having a full-out jam session in her empty gym at half past seven in the morning, so caught up in this new song a hoard of rampaging rhyperior could have stampeded through the gym and she wouldn't even have noticed. It was stupendous, spectacular, serendipitous, and every other cool sounding s-word she could think of.

She finished the last chord, breathing heavily as it hung in the air, and it was only the knowledge that she had a gym to run that kept her from calling up her agent and telling him to set up a tour _right_ now.

And that, of course, had to be right when the clapping started.

It wasn't a particularly loud noise, but the sheer unexpectedness of it had Roxie's heart nearly bursting out of her chest. She jumped, lost her grip on her guitar, and then muttered a few choice words that her father would have been _very_ unhappy to hear her say as she scrambled to keep it from hitting the ground.

She caught it, of course— she'd throw herself off a building before she let her guitar get damaged. It was a close call, though, and one that ended with her looking more like a twisted-up pretzel than a human being.

She straightened up, scowling ferociously, and glared out across the empty expanse of gym. (Well, tried to glare. As cool as the idea of installing stage spotlights had seemed when she was first designing her gym, it wasn't exactly the most practical design for trying to see anything.)

“Who's there?” she demanded ferociously.

“Oh! Sorry! One moment.” A feminine (and familiar, though Roxie couldn't quite place it) voice rang out.

A small, silhouetted figure waved at her from a table at the back of the gym. She watched, hand on her scolipede's pokeball, as it slowly picked its way around the various tables and chairs towards the front of the gym. 

It—no, she— stopped at the foot of the stage, and waved again, smiling openly. Brown hair, side buns with pigtails, yellow skirt-shorts with full leggings underneath. Roxie suddenly realized where she recognized that voice from.

So she wasn't being clapped for by a random intruder, then; it was just the freaking _Champion_ of the entire freaking _Unova Region_. No problem. No problem at all.

Roxie nearly dropped her guitar again trying to set it back on its stand. She quickly wiped her palms on the front of her shirt (which was weird, wasn't it? Didn't people think that was gross? But it had to be better than having sweaty palms, at least) and gave Rosa a rather shaky wave.

“Hey!” she said. “Hi. Um. How did you get in here?”

Rosa gave her a look that could only be classified 'baffled amusement'. “The door was open?”

Oh. She had forgotten to lock that, hadn't she? 

_Smooth, Roxie_. 

Add that to the list of similarities between gym leaders and rock stars, then: they were both complete and utter scatterbrains. It was hardly her fault she'd ended up with a double dose of that particular trait. Or maybe she could blame it on her father; he was about as up-in-the-clouds as they got.

Rosa’s smile turned a bit awkward with the pause. “I'm sorry! Were you having a private practice? I probably should have guessed, there's no one else in here...” She chuckled sheepishly. “I can go wait outside until you're done if you want?”

“No, no don't worry! I actually have to open the gym in...” she paused to check the clock. “Fourteen minutes! Crap!” This was why she never practiced before opening the gym; she got way too caught up in the music.

“I can help if you want!”

Her first instinct was to insist she could do it herself. The last thing she needed was for Rosa to think she couldn't set her own gym up. But fourteen minutes really wasn't enough time to get everything set up on her own, and opening her gym late because she wouldn't accept help would probably seem even more irresponsible.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “That'd be great, thanks.”

She'd hoped to be able to talk to Rosa while they worked, if only to figure out why she was here. But Roxie was the only one who knew how to set up the sound system, which left her in the back room flipping switches while Rosa pulled chairs off tables and swept up dust in the main room.

Billy Jo and Nicky showed up at eight, and between the four of them they managed to have everything in working order by about five minutes past. Just in time, too, because it was only a few minutes later that a quartet of fresh-faced trainers stumbled in.

The first girl managed to take down Roxie's koffing and whirlipede. She'd hoped that meant this would be a good batch, but the next boy could hardly yell out a command with how hard he was trembling; the girl after that lost because her mareep ran out of the arena in fright the moment Roxie sent out an ekans. The next boy lost as well, but she almost wanted to give him a badge for effort— if only because he was the only one of their group who had thought to bring antidotes to a poison type gym.

After them it was a trainer with two badges, then another couple of complete beginners. Roxie had known this was how it would be when she took the position, but the didn't make it any more exciting. Even the bits of guitar practice she managed to fit in when the trainers were facing off against Billy Jo or Nick weren't enough to keep her invigorated. 

So, in the absence of any real entertainment, Roxie kept an eye on Rosa as she battled. 

She had half-expected her to slip out the door when the gym opened; even Roxie didn't think battling new trainers was particularly interesting, and she was the one _doing_ it. But instead she'd claimed herself a table near the back of the building, and she smiled in all the right places and actually starting clapping a few times when one of the challengers managed to pull off a particularly good move.

Her excitement was contagious, and Roxie couldn't keep herself from showing off. She started balancing pokeballs on her nose or the tips of her fingers, bouncing them off her guitar to release her pokemon, even juggling them for a bit during a lull in the battling. 

Rosa seemed delighted by the tricks, and if it made the challengers think she was a little crazy... well, she _was_ a gym leader. Insanity was practically a job requirement.

The lunch break came a lot faster than usual, and Roxie was almost disappointed when she realized what time it was-- she'd been in the middle of trying to figure out if it was possible to balance a pokeball on her toes.

She packed up slowly, trying not to make it obvious she was staring. (Though really she had every right to stare, considering the _Champion_ was sitting in her gym, watching her battle.) 

She wasn't really sure what she expected Rosa to do— wasn't really sure what she _wanted_ Rosa to do— and so when Rosa walked up to her, smiling, and said “Hey, do you want to grab lunch?” the best response she could squeak out was a “...Huh?”. Accompanied, she was sure, by a very winning look of complete bafflement.

“It's okay if you don't!” Rosa said quickly. “Sorry, I know you probably have plans or something. I just don't know where the good restaurants around here are.”

“It's Virbank!” Roxie said automatically. “All of our restaurants are amazing. Er. Except The Lucky Audino, that place is terrible.” And then, because she realized that probably sounded like she was saying no, she hurriedly added, “But yes! I'd love to grab lunch. Just not at The Lucky Audino.”

Rosa smiled, which was nice to see because she had a _fantastic_ smile. (She'd known that, of course. The day Rosa won the Toxic Badge Roxie had been worried her face would fall off from the force of it. But she'd never really thought much of it before.)

“Awesome!”

\---

The place Roxie picked out was only a minute's walk from the gym, which meant that there wasn't time for anything more than basic awkward conversation on the way there. Roxie was more than willing to leave the actual questions until after they got their food, so she waited until they'd ordered and found a table to bring up what she really wanted to know.

“So!” Roxie said, unwrapping her sandwich, “What brings you to Virbank? Other than the fact that it's the best city in the world, I mean.”

“Tell me that again once you get an amusement park, and maybe I'll believe you.”

Roxie pouted and stuck her tongue out at Rosa. “Yeah, yeah, everyone loves the electric gym. Story of my life. Just 'cause none of the challengers here can _properly_ appreciate great music...”

“I dunno, I really liked the trick with the pokeballs on your elbows! You should do that in concert.”

Roxie couldn't help but laugh at that image. 

It was surprisingly easy to talk with Rosa; she'd been so intimidated by the thought of being visited by the Champion that she'd almost forgotten how friendly the girl was. Not that Alder wasn't, of course, but she would have never been able to grab sandwiches and fries with Alder. This was... nice, actually. Strange, but nice.

“Anyway!” Rosa said, interrupting Roxie's thoughts. “I'm probably actually going to be staying here a while. I'd been planning to stay with my mom, but it turns out I need the ocean.”

“You need the ocean? Are you going to become a professional swimmer or something?” Most gym leaders had a side career, so it shouldn't have struck her as particularly odd. But she really couldn't imagine Rosa as a professional athlete.

“Are you kidding? I sink like a steelix in anything deeper than bathwater. I need to train for the World Leaders Tournament.”

Roxie gulped. She shouldn't have been surprised; the first World Leaders Tournament in Driftveil was supposed to attract powerful trainers from all over the world, so it would have been strange if Rosa _didn't_ participate in it. But Roxie hadn't really thought of who her competition would be when she'd signed up to compete in it.

“Oooh,” she said, clamping down on her nervousness. “Does this mean you're going to show me all your strategies before the tournament even starts?”

“Not like you'd be able to beat me even if I did!”

“ _Rude_!” Roxie yelped, and stole a fry off Rosa's plate as compensation. “I'll have you know my team is going to kick butt in the tournament.” 

“Well, _I'll_ have you know that I just got a super-rare pokemon.”

“Huh. Really?” 

“Yup!” Rosa pulled a pokeball off her belt. “You can't find them wild anywhere in Unova. A man on Marvelous Bridge sold her to me. She's not too strong yet, but I can tell she's going to be the _best_.”

“No way!” That actually was awesome, even if it didn't bode so well for Roxie's tournament chances. “Can I see it?”

She knew even as she said it that it was a stupid question. You didn't just show people your brand new secret weapon pokemon, especially not if they were going to be battling against you in less than three months. 

“Of course!” 

“Oh, I—wait, _seriously_?”

“Sure.” Rosa shrugged. “Why not?”

Roxie opened her mouth, about to explain exactly why that was a stupid idea, and then realized that she actually really wanted to see this mystery Pokemon and shut it again. “No reason,I guess ! Can you let it out now?”

“Well,” Rosa said, taking another bite of her sandwich, “Maybe we should finish eating first?”

It was with some satisfaction that Roxie realized even if she lost both her fame and her gym leader position, she could probably do fairly well for herself in speed-eating competitions. 

\---

Rosa took her down to the south part of town, past the gym and the downtown and out on to one of the many piers that dotted the edge of Virbank. The salt in the air was particularly strong today. Roxie could almost taste it on her lips. It was a nice, soothing taste— it reminded her of going on boat rides with her father when she was just a little girl.

Rosa stopped at the edge of the pier and unhooked the pokeball off her belt. 

So that was what she meant about needing the ocean, Roxie realized. It must be a water type.

She tried desperately to remember what she'd learned about water types non-native to Unova. There was the part-dragon one, she knew, and the one that could shoot water from the cannons on its back. And maybe one that was part electric... lanturn, or something like that. She'd seriously have to study up on them before the beginning of the tournament if she wanted to have any sort of chance against the non-Unova participants.

“C'mon,” she said, “Throw it already!”

“Fine, fine. So impatient!” She held the ball there for another moment, until Roxie was about ready to just knock it into the water herself, then finally lobbed it into the air. 

“Come on out, Maggie!” 

The white light spread across the water, forming a body, and fins, and...

Roxie stared. And stared. And stared a little more, just for good measure.

“Well?” Rosa asked, practically bouncing on the tips of her toes.

“...That may be the _stupidest_ looking fish I have ever seen.”

The fish made a burbling sort of noise. Roxie decided to take that as agreement.

“Hey!” Rosa said, sounding honestly upset, and Rosa immediately cringed. _Tactful as always. Way to go, me._

“I mean... It's just....” She gestured wildly at the thing. “It's so orange! And it's looking at me really weird!”

“Just because Maggie's got big eyes doesn't mean she's not cute! You use a garbodor, don't you?”

“Hey, my garbodor is freakin' _adorable_.”

“And so's Maggie!”

“Fine,” she said. “I...guess she's sort of cute?” If you ignored the blank stare and the bizarrely proportioned body and the puffy lips. “What moves does she know?” 

“Erm.” This time it was Rosa's turn to squirm. “Um. Splash.”

“...And?”

“Just splash.”

“... _Seriously_?”

“Look,” Rosa said, twirling around and grabbing hold of Roxie's hand. Roxie tried not to blush at the contact. “The guy who sold her to me said she could become really strong if I raised her right. And I really do think she has potential!”

“Have you looked up anything on her species?” Getting useful information on pokemon from other regions was a huge hassle, but it was worth it when you were trying to train something rare.

“I checked in the pokedex for how to feed her, and what kind of water she prefers. But other than that, no.”

“Again, seriously?” Sometimes she wondered how this girl could have possibly become Champion.

Rosa nodded. “I know it's silly, but,” she paused, chewing on her lip. “I just want to do this on my own, I guess. I want to raise her because I like her, not on the basis of whether she becomes strong or not.”

And sometimes she knew exactly why Rosa had managed to become Champion. She had that unshakeable faith in her pokemon, the kind that didn't depend on their battling ability or raw power.

Roxie sighed. “You want to meet up sometimes, then?”

“Huh?”

“It'll be easier to raise her if you have someone else to battle against, right? We can do some sparring after I close up the gym every so often.”

“Really?” Rosa's eyes just lit up at that, like she'd offered Rosa a sack full of gold nuggets and not a pokemon battle, and she pulled Roxie into a tight hug. “Thank you so much, Roxie! You're the best.”

She smelled like salt, there was dirt ground in under her fingernails and the sunburn across the back of her neck was beginning to peel, and she smiled like there was no one else in the world but the two of them.

That was the moment Roxie fell hopelessly in love.

\---

The first month Roxie tried to convince herself that it would go away soon. She was acting just like one of her own fans, starstruck by a smile from the Champion of Unova and convincing herself it meant something deeper. And anyway, it was a terrible idea; she hadn't even known Rosa all that long and they'd be battling each other for real in just a couple of months, which basically meant this whole stupid thing was Romeo and Juliet: The Gym Leader Edition, and she refused to be the idiot who stabbed herself for love. 

Not that there would be any stabbing at the World Leaders Tournament. Well, she hoped not anyway, she'd heard Johto's dragon leader could have kind of a temper and _wow_ this metaphor was really getting away with her here.

(The problem was that she hadn't just now fallen in love. She'd been so excited when Rosa first battled her, even though she was a beginner like any other. She'd promised to compete in the Pokemon World Tournament because she knew Rosa would be there. She'd followed her progress— just casually, the same way any leader might check up on a trainer they'd found promising. But that hadn't accounted for how excited she'd been every time Rosa won another badge.

She had it _bad_ , and she'd been way too stupid to realize.)

Potential stabbings aside, battling with Rosa was fun. She lost more than she won, but won more than she thought she would, and Rosa had a way of making even the losses seem enjoyable. In battle, she was completely focused, shouting orders and strategizing in a speed that had Roxie doing everything she could just to keep up. The moment the battle ended, though, the spell would break and she'd be smiling as widely as ever, gushing over Roxie's tactics or her own pokemon's improvement.

Eventually, Roxie ended up with a schedule that looked rather like this:

1.) Set up the gym. Wait for Rosa to arrive. Try to act busy once she shows up.

2.) Battle trainers. Watch Rosa watching her battle trainers. Try not to make it obvious that she was showing off. Fail.

3.) Grab lunch.

4.) Repeat step 3, with bonus.

5.) Grab dinner at any restaurant except The Lucky Audino.

6.) Battle with Rosa. Try not to act like a swooning idiot. Fail.

7.) Train with Rosa's freaky fish. Try not to insult it too much. Mostly succeed, for once.

8.) Practice guitar.

9.) Repeat.

It was the most fun she'd had in a long time, and it would have been even better if her stomach hadn't felt like it was about leap up into her throat every time Rosa talked to her. (This was a big problem, because Rosa talked a lot.) Even the fish was starting to grow on her; sometimes she'd swear she could see affection in its soulless eyes or in the way it flopped around in the water. 

The worst part was that she didn't understand why Rosa was doing all of this. Training, sure, but there were other oceans with stronger pokemon and other towns with more capable gym leaders. If she'd wanted a real water expert, she could have gone to Marlon. He probably would have known everything there was to know about Maggie's species.

And even if this was training; you didn't go out for dinner and ice cream with girls just because you wanted to knock out their garbodor for the sixth time in row, right? They'd done more than battle: they'd talked about stupid crap with each other, they'd watched terrible movies and eaten terrible cheese-flavored popcorn together. They had to be at least friends by this point. 

...Which meant that she could totally ruin everything if she said anything. Great. Roxie dropped her head into her hands and groaned, earning herself an odd look from the challenger she'd just beaten and a rather more sympathetic one from Billy Jo. 

Billy Jo slipped her guitar back onto its stand and made her way backstage. A moment later she reappeared with a bottle of water. She took a quick drink, then offered it to Roxie.

“You want some?”

“Thanks.” 

They both stood there in silence for a moment. Finally, Billy Jo sighed and said, “Say, Roxie. Um. Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but you are you okay?”

“Yeah! Of course I am! I'm absolutely amazingly awesome, actually.” She gave her best rock star smile.

Billy Jo groaned at the alliteration. “Yeah, I'm sure you are. It's just...” she paused for a moment, one hand tapping a beat into the air like it would help her find the words she needed. “It's just that you're acting a little, ah, weird lately?”

“We're _musicians,_ you know. That's sort of expected.”

“I was a groupie for The Mighty Sableye. Don't you start trying to lecture me about weird musicians.” She smiled, lost in memories Roxie had absolutely no desire to ever hear about. “And anyway, I mean weird for _you_.”

Roxie sighed. “Thanks for the concern. But I really am totally fine! It's just nerves or whatever, I guess. I promise I'll get it together.”

“I'm not saying you don't have it together. You're always a good gym leader. I just worry about you sometimes, you know? It's an assistants' right to fuss over her boss.”

“Thanks.” She smiled at Billy Jo again, more sincerely this time. “I appreciate that.”

“That's what you pay me for, yeah?”

“Funny. I thought I paid you to, you know, battle,” she said, trying to do her best 'stern boss' expression.

“Well, speaking of battling...”

“Oh! Crap!”

There was a challenger waiting on the sidelines, tapping his toes in a seriously nonrhythmic way and generally looking incredibly impatient. She took the last swig of the water bottle as Billy Jo turned back to her own guitar.

“And hey,” Billy Jo called out as she picked it up, “Good luck!”

“ _What_?” Roxie tried to snap. It came out as a spray of water and a muffled gurgling sound. 

Billy Jo just laughed as she started a song. “Not that I think you need it, of course.”

“Well, yes, because there's absolutely nothing I need luck for in my life right now.”

“Then I'm just offering general good luck, for life as a whole. Is that so wrong?” 

The challenger coughed obnoxiously.   
Roxie glared daggers at Billy Jo's back as she selected her pokemon. Was she really that obvious? 

(Well, obviously she must be, unless Billy Jo just really wanted her to get good lottery numbers.)

Fine, Roxie decided. She'd say something tonight. Too much preparation was bad, both in music and in battling. There was no reason life should be any different.

\---

That night, they ate at a burger place. It was known as the Rotten Leppa, and, like every terribly-named burger place in existence, it the food was delectable. Burgers so juicy you could drown in them, golden-brown buns, and fries that dripped with grease; Roxie’s mouth was watering before she even took the first bite.

The summer sun still hung high in the sky, so they decided to eat on the lawn. They found an open spot and settled down, sitting next to each other on the springy grass. For a while the two ate in silence, concentrating entirely on their food.

“Rosa,” Roxie finally said. _Deep breaths._

“Yeah?” Rosa looked over at her, a dot of ketchup smeared across her cheek.

“Um.” She was fine. She was confident. She'd performed live in front of thousands of people before, this could not possibly be any more nerve-wracking than that. “Um. Why do you like watching my gym battles so much?”

Well, that certainly wasn't what she meant to say.

“Huh?” Rosa paused for a second, cheeks flushing with color. “I'm so sorry! Does it bother you? I promise I'm not trying to be a weird stalker or anything like that.”

“No!” _Open mouth, insert foot._ At this rate the best thing she could do for her love life would probably be to just stop talking forever. “It's just... it seems like it's gotta be pretty boring, y'know? I mean, Drayden or Marlon, sure, but I end up facing down more rattata and mareep than anything else.” 

She quickly took a big bite out of her burger, just to make herself stop babbling.

Rosa giggled. Her face was still a little pink. “Well, I remember when I was that new, you know? It's really nostalgic.” She flopped down into the grass next to Roxie, close enough that their shoulders touched. 

“You had a mareep, didn't you?” She remembered that battle. 

Roxie laughed. “And a rattata, too.” She was silent for a moment, looking serious. “You know,” she said softly, “I really thought you were the coolest person in the world when I first faced you. You weren't much older than me, but you were a gym leader, you had all these powerful pokemon, you played electric guitar... I couldn't believe I was getting to battle someone I'd seen on TV before.”

Roxie's face felt redder than a tomate berry. 

“Not that I don't still think you're the coolest, of course!” 

“Ah...” Roxie started. She looked over towards Rosa, not quite able to meet her eyes. Their faces were so close that if Roxie just leaned forward the tiniest bit...

“Oh!” Rosa said suddenly, pushing herself into a sitting position.

“What?” Roxie asked, rather stupidly. She couldn't really think of anything else to say.

“The sun's about to set! We'll run out of time to train if we don't get moving.” Rosa's face looked a little pink too. Maybe it was a trick of the light, or maybe she was embarrassed by what she'd said. Maybe she'd realized where Roxie was trying to take this, and was completely weirded out. _Maybe, maybe, maybe_. This was why Roxie hated complicated things.

“...Yeah, you're right,” she said after only a moment's pause. “I was going to let it slide because I didn't want to humiliate you again.”

“Yeah, okay. Think you'll be able to actually hit my beheeyem this time?” She stuck her tongue out at Roxie, completely back to normal. 

“And also,” she continued as she gathered up their food wrappers, cutting off Roxie's totally fantastic comeback,“I'm pretty sure Maggie learned how to tackle the other day! At the very least she's been getting a lot better at ramming things.”

Coming out of any other trainer's mouth, that would have sounded sarcastic. Rosa somehow managed to be completely sincere; she really was thrilled that her useless fish had learned how to hit things with its body instead of just flopping aggressively at them.

With a vague sort of dawning horror, Roxie realized that she almost felt proud of it herself. The fish better be brainwashing her or something, she thought fiercely, because the alternative— that she was actually becoming _fond_ of this thing— was too awful to bear. 

Roxie rolled her eyes, letting none of her deep inner turmoil show. “Great! Maybe it'll tackle my drapion unconscious, then, since none of the rest of your team can seem to beat him.”

“Yeah, well...” Rosa frowned. “Maybe she will!”

Roxie stopped in the middle of throwing her soda can away. “...You are absolutely _terrible_ at trash talk, you know that? Seriously, I think you should start working on your 'strong and silent' image before the tournament starts, just for your own sake.”

“I'll just be such a good and gracious winner that everyone will have to look up to me.”

“I'm going to gloat _so much_ when I beat you.”

It was better she hadn't said anything, she told herself as they started towards the pier. Really. There'd be other opportunities. Better ones. There was still almost two months until the tournament, after all; if she'd something now and made things weird, it would have cost her a training partner.

She was such an idiot.

\---

“Come on out, Accelerando! Let's go, Staccato!” Roxie's seviper and drapion materialized in flashes of bright light, roaring as they settled onto the cobbled pier.

“Huh, so that's how it's going to be! Time to go, Carson and Maggie!” 

Roxie frowned as Rosa's crustle materialized on the pier, Maggie splashing down into the water next to him. Accelerando could probably get him with a bulldoze if she could get close enough, but that thing's claws were _nasty_ and Roxie wasn't sure she was willing to risk it.

Their normal routine was to warm up with a double battle out on the pier, where 'double battle' meant 'Two of Roxie's Pokemon vs. one of Rosa's while the fish swims in circles nearby'. Rosa swore it was a legitimate training strategy, and for all her skepticism Roxie had to admit that it at least seemed to do _something_. Maggie had been growing bigger, and her scales had taken on a brighter sheen. (Though that could just as easily been due to the endless splashing.)

The battle started out fairly evenly matched, despite the odds; the crustle was surprisingly fast for such a bulky bug, and Rosa's commands made the best out of the limited space of the pier. She had him darting from side to side, snapping at her pokemon every time they got too close and grabbing bits of loose stone or even fragments of his own shell to hurl at them as they retreated. Neither of Roxie's pokemon were distance fighters, and Rosa was taking full advantage of that.

 _Well fine,_ Roxie grinned fiercely, _Two can play that game_.

She shouted orders at her team, kept the two of them darting in and out; they were almost close enough to grab his shell one moment, then wheeling back out of his range in the next. Together, they kept the crustle racing from one end of the pier to the other, until both she and Rosa could plainly see the exhaustion starting to show.

_Time to make my move._

“Staccato, fire fang!” 

Her drapion closed the gap fast, latching on to Carson's shell with red-hot fangs. It didn't seem to hurt him too badly—though he thrashed and hissed and tried to shake Staccato off— but that was all right. She'd accomplished what she needed to. 

“Now, Accelerando!” she snapped. “Bulldoze!”

“Get away!” Rosa shrieked, but they both knew it was too late.

Her seviper hissed as she struck, throwing the full weight of her tail onto the crustle's back. Carson shrieked in pain, unable to escape the blow. 

“Yes!” Roxie shouted, only barely managing to resist punching the air.

And the whole world shook itself apart.

Roxie's first thought was _earthquake?_ but no, earthquakes didn't leave the sea boiling, or create pillars of glowing light taller than any of the boats in the harbor and so bright she could have been looking straight into the sun.

 _We have to get out of here_ , she thought, reaching for her pokeballs. But Rosa had been standing at the very edge of the pier when they battled; she was standing there still, awestruck like the rest of them, gazing up at the shifting, writhing beam of light that rose up and up and up above her.

Carson moved before Roxie could, slipping out of Accelerando's grasp and skittering to Roxie as fast as he could manage. He tugged weakly at her her shirt until she stumbled backwards and only barely caught herself. But still she didn't move, didn't run.

Roxie was about to run in there herself and pull Rosa out, no matter how stupid that would be, when suddenly the sea stopped bubbling and the pier stopped shaking. The light faded, and its place was a great blue serpent, easily towering fifteen feet above them both and looking straight down at Rosa.

There was a _gyarados_ in the middle of Virbank Harbor. Roxie wasn't sure if that was better or worse than the world ending.

“ _Rosa,_ Roxie whispered. She really, really wanted to start yelling right now, but the gyarados was still staring blankly at Rosa rather than eating her, and she wasn't going to be the one to spook it. “ _Rosa, get out of there_.”

Still, Rosa didn't run. Instead she carefully reached one hand up, towards the gyarados' towering head and said, very carefully, “...Maggie?”

And the gyarados leaned in, just as carefully, and nuzzled her hand like it was some sort of five-hundred pound skitty.

_No way._

This was... this was absolutely ridiculous. Bizarre, impossible, ludicrous, and downright nonsensical.

Roxie slowly edged her way towards Rosa and Maggie. She couldn't remember whether or not you were supposed to make eye contact with gyarados or not. Given what she'd heard about them, she suspected it didn't matter all that much.

“You have a gyarados on your team,” she said very, very calmly.

“Oh, is that what this species is called? She looks really cool.”

“Are you kidding?” Roxie's voice rose nearly to a yell on the last vowel, before she remembered just what she was standing in front of and snapped her mouth shut. 

“Gyarados,” she started, more quietly, “They're... they can vaporize entire _towns_ , Rosa. They're crazy.” There was no real way to get it across to someone not from a harbor town: the way the sailors spoke of gyarados, how if you saw one in the wild you knew you were already dead. The stories she'd heard, of boats capsized and ripped to pieces, then dragged to the bottom of the sea. 

“Misty the Kanto gym leader has a gyarados. Crasher Wake of Sinnoh has a gyarados. _Lance of the Kanto Elite Four_ has a gyarados. You can't just... you can't just give a guy on a bridge the spare change out of your pocket and buy a gyarados!”

“Well, I bought a magikarp,” she corrected absently. “Maybe they just don't evolve often?” She stroked the bridge of Maggie's nose again, absentmindedly. “And Maggie, definitely no vaporizing towns, okay? No property damage at all, actually.”

The gyarados growled lazily, opening her mouth even wider in what could almost be a yawn. Her gaze swept over Roxie, and stopped there. 

Roxie froze. She'd called Maggie worthless, stupid, useless... how much of that had the pokemon understood? Were gyarados fond of holding grudges? 

The gyarados tilted her head, considering Roxie carefully as Roxie tried not to shake too badly. _Rosa_ , she thought desperately, _Rosa, please call your Pokemon back right_ —

There was a sudden flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, and the next thing Roxie knew a wall of water hit her, soaking her clothes through and bowling her over completely.

“What?”

Maggie was coughing, or something like it, a deep rumbling noise that almost sounded like...

Laughter. Rosa's gyarados had splashed her, and now it was _laughing_ at her. 

Roxie's ability to feel surprise officially broke. She'd been overwhelmed with terror and shock so many times throughout the day that the emotions had completely drained away, leaving her with nothing but a dry sort of acceptance in their place.

At least, that was her explanation for why, instead of cowering in fear, she leapt to her feet and shouted, “You useless freaking _fish_! I'm going to get you for that!”

Maggie laughed even louder. Her voice was like a tidal wave building. And, Roxie realized, Rosa was laughing with her.

“Hey!” she said as she stomped over to Rosa, trying to sound angry and failing miserably. “Your pokemon ruthlessly attacks an innocent child and you encourage it? Are you sure you should be a trainer?”

“I'm sorry,” Rosa gasped out between laughs. “It's just... your _hair_.”

“Yeah, shocker, my ponytail doesn't hold that well with all the gel washed out by a tidal wave. Laugh it up, please.”

“If I'd known it was going to be this great, I'd have tried to evolve Maggie _way_ earlier.”

And if there was one thing guaranteed to wipe the smile off Roxie's face, it was that. 

Rosa had come here to train Maggie, and now Maggie had evolved. And it wasn't just like she could _keep_ training Maggie here; even if she was remarkably tame, there was no telling the kind of damage a gyarados could do to boats simply by existing in close proximity to them.

So that left only one option: Rosa would probably be leaving. Soon.

She'd put off saying anything for a month, always assuming she'd have more time. And now her time was running out.

Rosa must have noticed the change in her mood, because the smile dropped off her face almost immediately. 

“Roxie, are you okay? Did I say something?”

Roxie shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. She was being so _stupid_. She couldn't just be happy for Rosa, of course; she had to go and ruin it like this. 

“Roxie...” Rosa's hand brushed across Roxie's cheek as Rosa swept some wet hair out of her eyes. 

That was the last straw for Roxie's self-control.

“I just... I just don't want you to _leave_ ,” she said miserably.

“Wait, who sai—” Rosa started, but Roxie was already on a roll.

“I thought I could pick a really good time to say this where it would be all awesome and romantic and everything, but I can't now and we're on a pier and I'm sorry for that. And I'm sorry for being really weird about this. But I like you, like, _a lot_ , like an awkward amount, and I really wanted to eat at more restaurants and watch more terrible movies and I dunno...” _Kiss or something_ was what she wanted to say, but she couldn't quite choke the words out. 

Rosa opened her mouth to speak again, but Roxie kept going. “But you can't train a gyarados in the middle of a harbor, don't even act like you can, so you're going to need to find somewhere else to train and I'm rambling, I'm so sorry, I just..” 

She was about to start crying. On the list of top ten worst love confessions in the entirety of the universe, this had to rank at least number six.

“...So,” Rosa said when it became apparent Roxie wasn't going to continue. “When you say you like me an awkward amount, you're not talking an awkward _platonic_ amount, right?”

Roxie shook her head miserably, staring at one of the cobblestones on the pier like it held the answers to of life's mysteries.

“Okay,” Rosa said, sounding a little breathless. “Just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to take this somewhere weird.”

She brushed some more hair out of Roxie's face. Roxie was just about to protest that her hair was _fine,_ thank you, except then Rosa's hand was followed by something that was most definitely not a hand.

“Mmph?” Roxie managed to get out in the moment before she realized she was being kissed. By the Champion of Unova. On a pier, in the setting sun. While being watched by a gyarados.

This was either the very best or the very weirdest thing that had ever happened to her. Probably both.

“Ew,” Rosa said as they broke apart. “You taste like saltwater right now, you know that?”

“And once again an innocent girl is blamed for your gyarados' monstrous actions.”

Roxie was smiling so wide she thought her face might split open. Rosa's answering grin looked just as pleased.

“So...” Roxie started.

“So now you let me speak,” Rosa said firmly. Roxie shut up.

“ _Yes_ , I'd really like to do all that with you too. I...” Her voice grew softer, more hesitant. “I really like you, Roxie. In an awkward, non-platonic way, if that's really what you think is the best way to put it. _And_ ,” she continued with a glare as Roxie started to speak, “I have no idea what you're going on about with me leaving. Maggie and I can find some abandoned coastline to train, unless you're somehow convinced Virbank owns the entire Unova coast. We can train in the open ocean if we need to; if she's as fast as I think she is it would probably only take us half an hour to get out far enough.”

Maggie grumbled in assent, tail sweeping lazily through the water.

“So you're being completely ridiculous,” she finished firmly, “And that's okay. I like you because you're ridiculous. But I will never, ever kiss anyone with a mouth full of saltwater again. So if you're looking for creative ways to get me to kiss you, please pick something better than this.”

Roxie wanted to laugh, just with the sheer ridiculous joy of this actually happening. But if she started laughing now she might not ever stop, so instead she just smiled at Rosa and threaded their fingers together.

“You caught me,” she said. “I actually somehow forced your magikarp to evolve just so I'd have a good excuse to get all emotional on you.”

“Hey!” Rosa said, “Speaking of Maggie evolving.”

“Yeah?” There was a very different sort of smile on Rosas's face now, and Roxie could tell she wouldn't like where this was going.

“You know, you did recall both your Pokemon while Maggie was still conscious and on the field. I think that makes me the winner of tonight's battle. Don't you, Maggie?”

Maggie snarled and arched out of the water in a way that either meant 'yes' or 'I'm going to raze this town to the ground right this moment'. She didn't immediately start ripping either of them apart, so Roxie decided to go with the former.

“That's not fair at all!” she protested. “The battle had clearly been disrupted by your Pokemon's actions. I had every right to pull my team once you did that.”

“Oh, so now evolving is considered a disruption to battle? Face it, Roxie, you totally lost.” She paused suddenly looking suspicious. “What are you smiling for?”

“Nothing,” she said. “It's nothing important.”

Really, it wasn't anything particularly noteworthy. She'd just realized that even if she had lost this battle, it didn't really matter. She could still challenge Rosa tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and on and on. 

She'd spent the past month so scared of the future that she'd only let herself think of the present. This opening up, of possibilities and opportunities stretching out to the World Leaders Tournament and even beyond that... it was nice. Really nice. 

“I'm just happy,” she said, and gave Rosa's hand a squeeze.

(Though, for the record? She'd _definitely_ won that battle.)

**Author's Note:**

> To my fantastic recipient: I hope you enjoyed this! I was really excited for a chance to write for you, haha. And I got the opportunity to write a really fun rare pair in the process, so bonus!


End file.
